In a short time this mountain landscape was seen in fuller significance; a vast expanse of level depression was opened out. The black chaoush and his three myrmidons had taken their departure at Gumgum; and I was able to unpack the camera. I directed the lens to north-east, towards the plain and the distant Akh Dagh (Fig. 159); and next to south-east, upon the Khamur. [168] We reached the level at about five o'clock, after crossing a spur of the plateau, strewn with volcanic stones. Khinis was seen, a speck in the lap of the plain, towards which we rode at a rapid trot. At a quarter to six we arrived upon the deeply-eroded banks of the river of Khinis, which we forded and entered the town. By directions of the Kaimakam we were lodged in his own office; he made his appearance early on the following day. A burly old man, with a head of great size and a massive forehead, with huge dimensions below the waist. This habit of body, which seemed to aggravate an advanced asthmatic affection, was due to continued sitting rather than to intemperance of diet. Our conversation was soon directed to the condition of the country--a subject upon which he held strong views. The people of his caza were, he said, almost without exception, liars, rogues and thieves. The Government did what it could; but the officials were not competent, being ignorant men like his humble self. Schools? There was supposed to be a Rushdiyeh in Khinis, but it was a Rushdiyeh only in name. As for the Kurds, they were the plague of his existence; you reaped them where you had not sown. Five houses here, there fifty people--impossible to count or to bring to count. If you wished to get anything out of them, you must borrow a stick from a bear-tamer and beat them about the head. He proceeded to inform me that the town was the principal centre of the trade in sheep, fattened upon the pastures of the Bingöl Dagh. Merchants come from the great cities, notably from Damascus, and make their arrangements in Erzerum. They bring their own shepherds, whom they send to Khinis when their agents there have concluded the purchase and received the flocks. It is at about the present season--that of early winter--that the trade is at its height. The sheep are driven across the mountains to Diarbekr, whence they are despatched through the plains to the Syrian centre. My host added that it was no very easy matter to get them safely through the snow to the head of the Mesopotamian plains. To me it seems a most remarkable feat.